


undone

by perfectlyrose



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: (of which the author knows little), Corsetry, F/M, Post-Episode: s01e03 The Unquiet Dead, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 09:15:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11643501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Rose is having trouble getting out of her corset after the evening in Cardiff in 1869. She goes to the Doctor for help.





	undone

**Author's Note:**

> written for the drabble prompt over on @doctorroseprompts of “undone” even though this turned out not to be a drabble

“Doctor, I can’t get out of this damn corset.” Rose came stomping into the console room with that announcement, over half an hour after she’d disappeared back towards the wardrobe room to change clothes.

The Doctor looked up from the mechanical bit he was fiddling with and immediately regretted it as his eyes landed on his companion. Her cheeks were flushed from exertion and her eyes shining with frustration and she looked  _ gorgeous _ .

(He’d already told her once tonight that she looked beautiful, had resisted telling her again and again and again as the night went on.)

(He bit his tongue so the words didn’t slip out again.)

“How’d you get into it?” He’d wondered before but figured it wasn’t really any of his business.

(Hadn’t stopped him from wondering, from imagining her potential flexibility)

“There was a machine thing in the wardrobe room,” Rose answered with a wave of her hand. “It was right next to the dress and was easy enough to figure out how to make it tighten the corset for me but now I can’t reach to undo any of it and that’s apparently not a function on your machine.”

“Not my machine,” he quipped.

“Your ship, your machine.”

“Never looked particularly good in a corset, me.”

Rose eyed him up. “You could probably pull one off.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Could pull that one off if you’re asking for help.”

“That’d be brilliant, ta.”

The Doctor swung his legs down from where they were propped up on the console and vacated his spot on the jumpseat. “Come over here then, you’re going to want to hold on to something.”

“Why?”

“Because everything’s being compressed by that thing and when it starts loosening you can get lightheaded, especially since you’re not used to wearing a corset.”

Rose walked over and placed her hands on the edge of the console. She gave the Doctor a look over her shoulder. “Ready when you are, then.”

The Doctor took a deep breath and tried to pretend he wasn’t burning this image into his brain -- Rose in that bloody tempting dress, bending over the console, inviting him over to touch.

Yeah, this one was going to stay with him.

He gripped her shoulder with one hand and started undoing the knot in the middle of Rose’s back. Once it was released, he started pulling on the laces, slowly loosening the corset.

He was halfway through when Rose took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Oh my god, I didn’t think I had it that tight but this is brilliant,” she said, voice shaky.

The Doctor didn’t say anything. He knew he could stop now, that Rose could undo the rest herself but she wasn’t telling him to stop and he was more than willing to continue.

He kept pulling on the laces, slipping his fingers beneath them more than strictly necessary so he could brush against the slivers of skin that were now making an appearance.

He should stop, he should really really stop before this got out of hand.

The Doctor squeezed her shoulder and then stepped back, looking away from the disheveled vision in front of him to focus on a bit of grating across the room. “All done. Think you can handle the rest.”

Rose turned and his eyes betrayed him, shifting back to take her in, a moth to the flame. She had an arm across her chest, holding the loosened garment up. Her cheeks were even more flushed than earlier and her eyes were dark.

They were standing on a precipice here, at a crossroads. He could feel it in the air, in his bones. 

In one timeline, they parted ways here. He would be left with the memory of the softness of her skin and the way she looked with her pupils blown wide and clothes askew to fuel his dreams. She would bite back her words and he would play this off like it was nothing out of the ordinary and they would continue on as they were.

In another, he offered to help her take the rest of it off and she accepted. In that timeline, he learned exactly what her lips looked like when swollen from his kisses instead of from her biting down on them herself, he learned the weight of her breast in his palm and the sweet symphony of sounds she made when he brought her over the edge with his fingers as kept her pinned against the console. Everything changed if that was the path they chose.

The Doctor was frozen with indecision, the myriad of timelines and possibilities dancing around them as he stared at Rose.

She made the decision he couldn’t. She moved her arm and the corset fell. “Maybe you can handle it for me,” she said. Her cautious smile was at odds with her bold actions and he fell in love with her a little bit more.

“Fantastic.” He pulled her close and claimed her mouth in a kiss, letting himself be consumed by her flame.

In the end, it was she who had undone him, despite the state of her corset, and he couldn’t find it in him to complain one single bit.


End file.
